Technical Field of the Disclosure
The instant disclosure relates to door operating systems. More particularly, the instant disclosure relates to a line belt driven retrofittable door opener, system, and method of retrofitting thereof.
Description of the Related Art
Opening, closing, and passing through doors can be a challenge for elderly people or individuals with disability. For example, those who are physically challenged and need to use either wheelchair, scooter, cane or walker have difficulty transitioning through doorways. As such, there is clearly a need for some type of door control to assist them with doors. Currently, there are different modifications that could be made to the existing doors to meet this need and give this population more physical independence.
One solution is automatic door openers or door opener systems. These systems are typically an electronic and/or pneumatic device that can be installed on the existing doors for office or home use to automatically operate them. The instant disclosure is mainly directed to swing doors, but similar systems could be designed for sliding doors as well. Automatic door openers can be sensor automatic door openers, touch-type automatic door openers that use a wall mounted switch or panel that automatically opens the door, and/or remote control automatic door systems.
One thing that has been discovered with current door opener systems is that with the constant passage of people through the doorway, like through public doorways of office buildings, the gears, shafts, and motor assembly which are normally part of the automatic door opener, becomes worn over time. With the current automatic systems, although they are not used that frequently by a Handicapped person, they are operated every time a person manually opens the door. In addition, when the system is engaged and opening a door, the rigid gears, shafts and motor assemblies can easily be stripped or broken upon someone accidentally bumping the door or forcing the door in the opposite direction. Thus, even though they may not even be utilized often, wear and tear on these systems may be quite high.
Another problem that has been discovered with current door opener systems is that they necessitate a greater door-opening force than normally required, as the currant door opener systems all have friction or drag of some type. The opening force for doors is required to be less than 5.0 pounds (22.2 N) maximum force required to activate all parts but the door must still be able to close and deal with winds that blow the door open so losing even adding a small amount of drag takes away from the force needed to close and control the door.
Another problem that has been discovered is that most doors include a standard door closer already installed. The standard closer is well known as a door closing mechanism that has a Body (Steel or Aluminum) with a spring used as a force to rotate a rotating pinion that attaches to the door arm that pushes or pulls a door close. For example, the speed of the door is usually controlled by oil passing threw a valve. The closer also has a pinion shaft that passes threw the body. The LCN 4040 and Norton are typical types. As such, in order to install a door opener system, with the current door opener systems, one must work around the existing door closer and/or remove it all together.
Therefore, it is readily apparent that there is a recognizable unmet need for a door opener and system that is flexible, that necessitates little to no additional opening force, and may be retrofittable to existing doors and their closers. The instant disclosure is designed to address at least some of the above mentioned problems by providing a line belt driven retrofittable door opener.